Discouraged, help me please for next run

I failed my first Dwc hydro grow. From the start it was nothing but problems. Started off with root rot and won the battle in 2 weeks on my seedlings. I lost a few strains in the process but saved most. I killed some seedlings with wrecklessness at the beginning too. I ordered my strains online so it was sad every time my stupidity killed one of them. After the root rot battle, shit got much better in veg. I flipped them to flowering light schedule 12 and 12 a month and a half into veg. I had 4 strains that I saved from my seeds and a friend gave me some bigger vegged plants to add to my garden. Budding was gay as fuck. I discovered bananas on one of my plants. I removed it and think I pollinated everything in the process or they all hermied. I'm not sure but they all have seeds. Pissed me the fuck off. All that money and time and work invested and I get seeded. I chopped all at week 8 cuz buds were small and seeded and not getting any bigger. I called it a loss pissed off didn't even flush my plants. Dried and trimmed and in jars. It all taste good but not a lot of bud unfortunately. Growing in S basement. Everything was right in check with water temps and air temp and humidity and ppm and ph. Growing in the basement in Michigan. I plan to try autoflower strains next run with no training other than lst. I did all indica and sativas this run and am trying autos to hopefully do better. Why are my buds so small though? They wouldn't fatten up for nothing. I'm guessing either they were focused on seed production. If not that option my rooms not a sealed room and it's in my basement. I'm not running co2 as it's not a sealed room unfortunately. I'm not pulling air from outside either. Could that help co2 levels in my basement or just help them get fresh air to help? I'm not giving up because I learned so much and know I can do better. I'm just stumped on what my issue is here, whether it's seed production or lack of co2 or both? Good idea or bad idea to pull air from outside into my basement?

nicksol86 said:

I failed my first Dwc hydro grow. From the start it was nothing but problems. Started off with root rot and won the battle in 2 weeks on my seedlings. I lost a few strains in the process but saved most. I killed some seedlings with wrecklessness at the beginning too. I ordered my strains online so it was sad every time my stupidity killed one of them. After the root rot battle, shit got much better in veg. I flipped them to flowering light schedule 12 and 12 a month and a half into veg. I had 4 strains that I saved from my seeds and a friend gave me some bigger vegged plants to add to my garden. Budding was gay as fuck. I discovered bananas on one of my plants. I removed it and think I pollinated everything in the process or they all hermied. I'm not sure but they all have seeds. Pissed me the fuck off. All that money and time and work invested and I get seeded. I chopped all at week 8 cuz buds were small and seeded and not getting any bigger. I called it a loss pissed off didn't even flush my plants. Dried and trimmed and in jars. It all taste good but not a lot of bud unfortunately. Growing in S basement. Everything was right in check with water temps and air temp and humidity and ppm and ph. Growing in the basement in Michigan. I plan to try autoflower strains next run with no training other than lst. I did all indica and sativas this run and am trying autos to hopefully do better. Why are my buds so small though? They wouldn't fatten up for nothing. I'm guessing either they were focused on seed production. If not that option my rooms not a sealed room and it's in my basement. I'm not running co2 as it's not a sealed room unfortunately. I'm not pulling air from outside either. Could that help co2 levels in my basement or just help them get fresh air to help? I'm not giving up because I learned so much and know I can do better. I'm just stumped on what my issue is here, whether it's seed production or lack of co2 or both? Good idea or bad idea to pull air from outside into my basement?

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What was your dwc setup like? Water temps, equipment and all that.

Other than production why did you choose hydro? A basement doesn't seem the best environment for it. Soil is so easy.

Dwc single 5 gallon buckets. When I got root rot it was cuz I put them in the hottest room of my house and water temps were like 80 with no hydroguard or sterile route. I fixed that early on and never problems again. In my basement water temps were between 64 degrees and 72 degrees. Humidity higher than 60 percent in veg and between 40 and 60 percent during flower. General hydroponics nutrients Flora trio with 0 ppm coming out of my ro system. Calimagic first 200 to 300 ppm the whole cycle, early veg I used rapid start to help roots. After calimagic the micro mixed, grow mixed, and bloom mixed, then in budding I added liquid koolbloom, floralicious plus and last hydroguard after I PhD. Bites in veg ppm 300 to 450. Flower ppm my plants didn't like anything higher than 600 or 650 range without slight burn so I'd back it down between 500 and 600 and they liked it there. Maintained ph daily throughout veg n flower. Veg 6.1 to 6.3 flower 5.7 to 5.9 with bluelab meter that measures water temp. Ppm I used. 5 scale. Measures ec and ppm. I always kept everything in check or so I thought. I had a hygrometer in my room and air temps at night in the 60s. The highest it got with lights on was around 80 and my water temps would hit 72 to 74 but never had any problems using hydroguard. Flowered with 1000 watt hps hortilux bulb. Added a 400 watt that wasn't exhausted for a week or so and my room got to hot so I stopped running it and temps only hit 75 degrees with lights on in the room with only the 1000 and water temps at that point were right on between 68 and 72. Fan with a light breeze on them the whole grow. I did not know if I should pull air from outside or not for fresh co2 in my basement so I didn't. I had 2 Minor disturbances in my light cycle during flower. I accidentally unplugged light for a minute, couple times I noticed cords unplugged and freaked out and taped them so no-one pops them out. I could have stressed them that way also. Next run I learned allot and fixed a lot of my problems as I went. So I think I can do better. We had a flood the 2nd disturbance due to flash flood from heavy rains. Ballasts and electricity in water. Don't know how I didn't lose everything but I managed to pull through that too and I got everything off the ground now so that can't happen again.

I think hotrodharley was headed this way with his comment but... I bet if you drill holes in a 5 gallon bucket full of dirt and put a seed in it you'll come out with better results. Not trying to be difficult but you have a whole host of variables here and you're not getting any weed out of it so I would hit the reset button. Once you have a stable grow room with results you can predict, you can start adding more variables while you smoke your bud.

I mean I literally have never used my pH meter using dirt and General Organics. I never even calibrated it. Biggest decision I have to make in a day is if I should water today or not. I'm not saying DWC is bad or hard just that soil is very forgiving.

But anyway, airy buds are probably from high heat and CO2 is not the issue. Was the water well oxygenated?

hotrodharley said:

Other than production why did you choose hydro? A basement doesn't seem the best environment for it. Soil is so easy.

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I agree but I don't know anything else. I have a partner who`s light I'm using but he's always drinking and never really here to help me so I get help on here instead. He is against soil. I am for hydro too for faster veg times. I don't know anything about soil growing. I've tried resesrching but don't understand it. I understand hydro easier. Making super soil, ain't nobody got time for that shot. Takes a month or 2. I agree organic weed taste the best and is safest to smoke but I also like growing weed in pure water as that's what I understand. I had some plants in soil bit gave them away cuz I'd either burn them or starve them when I fed them

Not to be insulting but obviously your understanding is not thorough. Pro Mix. Treat like hydro. Getting help here for a trouble free run is a long pull.

Srirachi said:

I think hotrodharley was headed this way with his comment but... I bet if you drill holes in a 5 gallon bucket full of dirt and put a seed in it you'll come out with better results. Not trying to be difficult but you have a whole host of variables here and you're not getting any weed out of it so I would hit the reset button. Once you have a stable grow room with results you can predict, you can start adding more variables while you smoke your bud.

I mean I literally have never used my pH meter using dirt and General Organics. I never even calibrated it. Biggest decision I have to make in a day is if I should water today or not. I'm not saying DWC is bad or hard just that soil is very forgiving.

But anyway, airy buds are probably from high heat and CO2 is not the issue. Was the water well oxygenated?

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Using 2 general hydroponics air pumps. 4 air tubing sites per pump.

So describe your setup. Nutes, hydroguard, peroxide , monitoring. Your schedule for res swaps, what your starting EC was etc.

hotrodharley said:

Not to be insulting but obviously your understanding is not thorough. Pro Mix. Treat like hydro. Getting help here for a trouble free run is a long pull.

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OK I'll try some pro mix soil run next run and I'll try 4 hydro buckets to see if I can improve it and see what I like better at the end. You've inspired me to try it. I will use 2 stones per hydro bucket next run. Maybe more oxygen will help my hydro plants. And I did learn allot my first hydro grow and can definitely improved my room and next run I feel. But I'll trust you guys, as I have read soils more forgiving. And I do like the taste of soil better. What do I add with the pro mix soil before I plant weed in it? And obviously I know I have to mix whatever I add well but what do you recommend on adding to the soil? I don't have a month or two to make subcoils super soil.

hotrodharley said:

So describe your setup. Nutes, hydroguard, peroxide , monitoring. Your schedule for res swaps, what your starting EC was etc.

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I described everything above buddy. Scroll towards the top and it's all there

nicksol86 said:

I described everything above buddy. Scroll towards the top and it's all there

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I used hydroguard. General hydroponics Flora trio. I used h202 from hydro shop to help when I had root rot but stopped it when it went away and used hydroguard from then on out. I still have h202 to try and compare a sterile run to a hydroguard run. I have a buddy who does sterile and mixes up his own sodium hypoclorite and gave me some that I never used either. I wanted to use hydroguard as I read lots of good about it.

hotrodharley said:

So describe your setup. Nutes, hydroguard, peroxide , monitoring. Your schedule for res swaps, what your starting EC was etc.

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I changed buckets weekly with fresh nutes. Started at quarter strength and slowly worked my way up. Never saw any burn until I tried to go past 650 or 700ppm in flower. They all looked really healthy and good in veg and when I flipped them. I made mistakes in flowering and I won't make the same mistakes again. I don't want seeds and I know I can do better next run. I plan to try 4 soil and 4 hydro and see what I like better. All autoflowers this run as its faster to harvest and so hopefully I run into less problems with a shorter grow til I get better, then I'll try Indica and sativas once I get a good grow under my belt.

I'm putting foam insulation up to build a better room this next run. Instead of cheap blast plastic roll that I used to build my current room

Your PPM in flower was acceptable. You say started off 1/4 strength but then mention a working PPM . Sodium hypochlorite is just household bleach. Get a book and study it. Hydro produces but when things go bad they happen quickly.

Patience is a virtue . Soil.

hotrodharley said:

Your PPM in flower was acceptable. You say started off 1/4 strength but then mention a working PPM . Sodium hypochlorite is just household bleach. Get a book and study it. Hydro produces but when things go bad they happen quickly.

Patience is a virtue . Soil.

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I know that's what sodium hypoclorite is. That's why I didn't use it. Lol are you saying sterile is better? I thought it'd be a pain having to add h202 every 3 or 4 days. I can't give up hydro, my buddy won't let me and I can't give up either. Too much invested and I'll make it better. But I will do 4 soil and 4 hydro to do a side by side so my buddy can see too what is better in our opinions on trying both methods. If I do a side by side and soil is better I will fully switch. But I won't give up without a fight.

Maybe I'll try 2 hydro with hydroguard and 2 with sterile and see if there is a difference there as well

I think your system is pretty well sorted out. You got seeded so that will screw things up, rookie mistake. I don't remember your genetics but they are either good or not good and yours may have been not good. I bought plenty of fancy named seeds and very few are worth keeping. That Koolbloom is dangerous shit. I screw up my plants every time I use it and get small buds. I run a Pro Mix bucket once in a while for nostalgia but my DWC buckets always blow them away.

I say keep trying, watch for the males, keep them in the cellar where it's cool. (I never use hydrogaurd) ditch the Koolbloom and try a couple Pro Mix buckets for the heck of it. Good Luck!

Sterile is impossible but cleanliness is next to Godliness in hydro. It's easier to prevent any issues rather than trying to cure them.

I was in your same boat couple years ago lost 3 grows in my nft tubs to root rot n reservoir overheating(lack of oxygen) , the mrs moaning about all money going into room n was about to give up , the next grow I sterlized everything
(tubs,hydroton,equipment) with 35%h202(hydrogen peroxide) increased air pump n airstones size and started using canazyme and rhizotonic great products